LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



f 9 ''! 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




ENTRANCE TO DARK HARBOR. 



An Islesboro Sketch 



By JOEL COOK. 




iAA-A. 



With Illustrations by Louis K. Harlow. 




PUBLISHED BY THE 

boston photogravure co. 
1 8qo. 



COPYKIGHTED 1S9O, 
BY THE 

Boston Photogravuke Co. 






PENOBSCOT BAY, 




ss^ 



From gray sea fog, from icy drift, 

From peril and from pain, 
The home-bound fisher greets thy lights, 

O hundred-harbored Maine ! 

Whittier. 



. AMUEL CHAM PLAIN, the intrepid French explorer 
i--"- and rehgious enthusiast, is beUeved to have 
°™" been the first white man who sailed upon 

Penobscot Bay. Captain George Waymouth, who came 
after him in 1605, took possession for England and set 
up a cross upon its shores near where is now the city 
of Belfast. Waymouth marvelled at the magnificence of this won- 
derful bay with its broad, deep waters and great river, writing 
home that " many who had been travellers in sundry countries and 
in most famous rivers, aftirmed them not comparable to this — the 
most beautiful, rich, large, secure harboring river that the world 
affordeth." 



6 AN ISLESBORO SKETCH. 

In those early days the region of the Penobscot was the semi- 
fabulous Norunibega, the Europeans knowing no river that was its 
equal, and no bay with sucli extensive surface and enormous tidal 
flow. Many were then the wondrous tales of weird Norumbega. 
The Penobscot is the greatest bay on the Maine coast, which in 
many respects is the most remarkable sea-coast in this country. 
Its jagged and uneven contour is seamed with deep inlets and 
serrated by craggy headlands projecting far out into the ocean, 
while between are hundreds of rocky and romantic islands. This 
grandest of Maine harbors, with its stern headlands and green archi- 
pelagoes, conducts to the ocean the largest of Maine's rivers. 

The noble Penobscot was in early times the home of the war- 
like Tarratines, whose fame also went abroad as the remarkable 
people of this wonderful Norumbega. From its sources to the sea 
this river, which bears on its bosom the vast products of Maine's 
forests, is 175 miles long. Its embouchure broadens out into the 
enormous bay filled with islands, and the wedge shape of the 
lower river, by gathering such a vast flow of waters suddenly com- 
pressed at the Bucksport Narrows below Bangor, makes a rapidly 
rushing tide and an ebb and flow rising seventeen feet at Bangor. 

The shores of this grand bay and river were part of the French 
Acadia, for the Frenchmen soon took this region away from Eng- 
land, and the powerful Tarratines became their firm friends through 
the influence of the Jesuit missionaries sent among them from 
Canada. These Indians named it Penobscot, meaning " where the 
land is covered with rocks," and their town on a narrow jutting 
peninsula on the eastern shore, was Pentagoet, or " the stream 



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AN ISLESBORO SKETCH. 






<»-- 




ON COOMB'S BLUFF. 



No. ISLESBORO. 



where there are rapids." The Plymouth Company first estab- 
hshed here an English trading post controlled from Massachusetts. 
Then the French captured it and built Fort Pentagoet, long one 
of their strongholds. The Dutch from New York took it; the 
French recaptured it ; and then becoming the noted town of Castine, 
the English plundered and finally held it. This fortress of the 
Penobscot, abounding with relics and scarred by repeated wars, 
is now vegetating in the pjeacefiil s^ilendor of a popular watering 
place. 

The islands and shores of this extensive bay are covered with 
forests — one of the crowning adornments of "hundred-harbored 
Maine." The head-waters of the Penobscot traverse an immense 
territory abounding with miles upon miles of the finest pine, spruce 
and hemlock. Through these great woods of the primeval forest 



AN ISLESBORO SKETCH. 9 

the visitor penetrates in approaching the shores of the bay. Its 
bold western coast forms the well-known Maine counties of Knox 
and Waldo. Its abutting lands and islands were included in the 
''Muscongus Patent" which King George I. issued and which came 
to the Massachusetts Colonial Governor, Samuel Waldo, before the 
Revolution. This extensive patent embraced a tract thirty miles 
wide on each side of the Penobscot, and was a princely domain. 
In those days in Boston, the Governor's grand-daughter visited 
a certain book- store so often that she became enamoured of the 
handsome young man behind the counter. The youthful book- seller 



•v*W^""^ 




A SHORE RAVINE. 

No. Isl.ESBORO. 



lO 



AN ISLESBORO SKETCH. 




ALONG THE SHORE. 

Coomb's Bluff. 

was Henry Knox, afterwards one of Washington's most trusted gen- 
erals. Their love had the usual ending, and the marriage ultimately 
made Knox the owner of the great domain, and the " patroon of 
Penobscot Bay." After the Revolution, he lived in baronial state 
in his palace at Thomaston, dispensing such princely hospitality that 
although he owned the best part of ALaine he was literally " land 
poor," and became a bankrupt before he died. His descendants 
and successors have since divided up his extensive i)rincipality. 



AN ISLESBORO SKETCH. II 

The most magnificent portion of General Knox's domain were 
the beautiful waters of Penobscot Bay and its many picturesque 
islands, whose graceful contours make the most attractive and capacious 
archipelago upon the Atlantic coast. The jvitting point of Owl's 
Head guards the entrance to the bay on the western shore, and 
limestone and granite rocks environ the coast and islands. To the 
northward they rise into the tree-crowned and towering Camden 
mountains, boldly elevated far above the shore to cast grand shadows 
far across the bay as the afternoon sun sinks in the western sky to 
make most gorgeous sunsets. 

Round-topped Megunticook stands 1400 feet above the little 
harbor at Camden and visitors often clamber to its top to get the 
grand view over the galaxy of sister peaks environing it, anci across 
the broad blue bay and its splendid archipelago with the swelling 
peaks of distant Mount Desert far away to the eastward, and the 
limitless ocean seen beyond the southern entrance. 

In front are spread out the islands in the centre of the great 
expanse of blue waters, deliciously nestling under the trees that 
fringe their upland slopes. Such is the view to-day over the most 
charming portion of PVance's prized Acadia — one of Nature's 
fairest scenes. 







ISLESBORO SCENERY. 




M TTRACTIVE beyond all its other scenic beauties is 
the gem of Penobscot Bay, the 



" insular town of Islesboro," the 

* chief of the five hundred or more 

islands dotted upon the magnificent waters of 

V. this grand interior sea. Islesboro, or Long Island, 

is an elongated strip of land in the centre of 

the charming bay, stretching some thirteen miles, 

and having on either side the mainland, distant from one to five 

miles, with much of the intervening water surface varied by islands. 

This long strip of Islesboro rises into highlands and is of varying 

widths, being deeply indented, and in three places almost bisected 

by ravines and fissures making beautifiil bays and coves, where 

the gentle waters plash upon the pebbly beaches, fringing their 

sloping shores. 

Bold banks rise above these bays, crowned with evergreens, and 
presenting the delightful pastoral landscape of field and hillside, 



AN ISLESBORO SKETCH. 



13 




LILY POND. 

Head of Sfragues Cove. 

water and woodland giving such charms to New England coast 
scenery. The lands are generally highest in the central parts, the 
hills and vales and wooded slopes giving perfect views. The long 
and narrow island covers about ten square miles of irregular con- 
tour, broadening or narrowing as the little harbors may indent 
it, while in many places the surface rises over a hundred feet into 



AN ISLESBORO SKETCH. 15 

bold bluffs. The bracing air, come from what quarter it may, 
blows freely over the whole island, combining the healthful breezes 
of both mountain and sea, and making a miniature paradise. 

This "insular town of Islesboro" was a famous hunting ground 
of the Tarratines, and remained in a state of nature until the first 
white men settled there in 1769. Twenty years later, including 
Seven Hundred Acre Island, Job's, Lassell's, Moose, Spruce, the 
two Ensigns and some other islands, it was incorporated into a 
town. About half the men are sea-captains, and the rest farmers. 
Early history described this fortunate island as having " neither a 
rich man nor a poor man." All the land titles came down from 
the old patroon, General Knox, and there were any number of 
Pendletons, Coombs and Thomases, and old John Gilkey and Shubael 
Williams, whose descendants are yet living on their ancestral farms. 

Islesboro has been one of those hap])y regions described by the 
seer, that has had little history. The British marauders in 1778 
came over the bay from Castine and killed Cilkey's cows, while 
Shubael Williams proved too sturdy a patriot for them and was 
carried off and flogged. Again in 18 13 the British captured a 
vessel on the bay, when a party from Islesboro put off in boats and 
within a few hours recaptured her. But the island has not had much 
history, though its people have looked out on many stirring events 
on Penobscot Bay. Once an Islesboro man murdered his wife and 
pleaded insanity, but the jury found him guilty, and he squared the 
account by killing himself in jail before the law hanged him. 

In the various pleasant sketches in this little book, Mr. Harlow 
and Mr. Howe have given some idea of the many scenic beauties 



i6 



AN ISLESBORO SKETCH. 




HEAD OF SEAL HARIJOK 

Cen'tral Islesboko. 

of Islesboro. The northern end of the island, from its contour, was 
not inappropriately calletl "Turtle Head " by one of the early visitors, 
the Colonial (lovernor Pownall of Massachusetts. Not far south 
from this head the beautiful little island inlet of Sprague's Cove is 
thrust far into the land, the entrance making a snug harbor, while 
above a pretty stream flows down through the trees, falling over an 
old mill-dam long since abandoned. 

Upon the eastern shore Sabbath Day Harbor is indented, its 
abrupt northern banks rising into Coomb's IJluff. This bold prom- 
ontory of beautiful contour is rounded in the centre, and has green 
pastures where contented sheep browse upon fields sloping off to 
the ponderous gray and red bordering cliffs. Many adornments are 
here, of dark firs and beeches, with the attractive arbor vitje dotted 
about. Nestling among the trees are a few cottages of these farmer- 
fishermen giving picturesqueness to the scene. 



AN ISLESBORO SKETCH. 17 

These primitive people — naturally aquatic — will only cultivate 
a few acres around their homes, leaving the lands mainly to the 
sheep, while they tend their nets on the shores below, or sail off on 
a fishing-smack or coaster for a season's voyage. Like most of the 
"fishermen-farmers" of the coast of Maine, they are never busy, 
and alwavs have plenty of time at disposal for gossip or bargaining. 
Seldom in a hurry, they dislike beginning any work until, in their 
parlance, they are "good and ready." 

Coomb's Bluff gives an outlook over the eastern bay and its 
islands, with the distant shores and mountains, that is magnificent. 
The massive Blue Hill stands up an isolated guardian behind the 
pleasant white houses and church spire on the peninsula of Castine 
off to the northward. Those now pleasant waters have been at times 
red with the blood of some of the fiercest naval battles in American 
history. One might almost walk around this entire Bluff", on the 
topmost edge of its rocky wahs, did it not occasionally break down 
into abrupt and deep ravines, sloping off" to the clear pebbly 
beaches of the coves below. Scramble down a ravine and there 
little coves are found separated by bold promontories thrust into 
the sea, hollowed out but not overthrown by the waves. Far over 
the waters are beautiful views of the distant dots of sails, colored 
white or gray as sunlight or shadow may paint them, scattered for 
miles along the bay, or out on the distant ocean. 

Old Shubael Williams, of Revolutionary memory, selected his 
farm on a lo\ely sjiot in the centre of the island, where two pairs 
of indenting bays have almost bisected the island and enclosed it. 
Several fine harbors environ this farm, among them Seal Harbor, 



l8 AN ISLESBORO SKETCH. 

enclosed by Keller's Point, a safe haven for the largest vessels, 
and Bounty Cove, and Crow Cove, their attractive shore lines 
presenting many scenic charms. After the old man had suffered 
for his sturdy patriotism, his pretty daughter became enamoured of 
a British soldier at Castine. He used to cross the bay to meet 
her clandestinely, but unfortunately he came once too often. Upon 
a cold night he skated over the ice, guided by a light in the 
cottage window, but just before reaching the shore he fell through 
an air-hole and was drowned. The father was not very sorry, 
but the daughter grieved sadly. Time, however, is a great assuager 
of grief — she afterwards married another. 

To the southward is a most attractive haven, Gilkey's Harbor, 
on the western side of Islesboro, formed by the enclosing shores 
of several adjacent islands. Here also the largest ships can safely 
anchor in all weathers. Tliese pretty islets enclose an almost 
completely landlocked sheet of water, where the pleasures of the 
sailing yacht and smallest row-boat can be enjoyed in perfect 




AN ISLESBORO SKETCH. 



19 



security. This miniature summer sea, bounded by rocky forest- 
covered shores, with an occasional old-fashioned farm-house on the 
upland, rivals in its sylvan and aquatic beauties the world-famous 
Loch Katrine or Lake Windermere. 

One primitive farm-house on the sloping shore, elevated nearly 
a hundred feet above the water, and standing about a thousand 
feet back, is jjarticularly attractive. The admiring obser\'er is puzzled 
to decide which view is the prettiest, that from the harbor looking 
ashore, or the splendid picture of land and water loveliness over 
Gilkey's Harbor and the western bay. The greensward stretches down 
to the water. The placid harbor is in front, having the elongated 
projection of Grindle's Point encircling it, and a little white light- 
house at the entrance. Spread in front as the harbor stretches 
two or three miles southward is the archipelago of protecting 
islands. Outside glistens the broad Penobscot Bay with its grand 
western background of the Camden Mountains, their line of 
rounded peaks of nearer green or more distant blue, over which 
the cloud shadows are chasing, running off far away towards 
Belfast. The surrounding islands and the smooth and placid 
waters within their embrace, make as foir a harbor as one could 
hope to see ; while the distant mountains form a noble setting for 
the ofem. 




AN ISLESBORO LEGEND. 




HE region surrounding Islesboro was in the olden 
time the home of the warlike Tarratines, who had 
our pleasant island for their fa\orite hunting ground. 
These Indians were a branch of 
the fierce Abenaqui nation, and the 
French who came to Acadia early 
wished to convert this powerful tribe to Chris- 
} tianity. Among the French noblemen who were sent 

out in the seventeenth century, coming with his regiment, was Vincent, 
Baron de St. Castine, Lord of Oleron in the Pyrenees. Inspired 
by a chivalrous desire to spread the Catholic faith among these 
Indians, he visited them in 1667. As Longfellow tells it: 



" Baron Castine of St. Castine 

Has left liis Chateau in the Pyrenees, 

And sailed across the western seas." 

The grand Sachem of the Tarratines was Madockawando, who 
then ruled in the fabled land of Norumbega, of which Europeans 



22 AN ISLESBORO SKETCH. 

had heard so much that was marvellous. The Baron came and 

tarried, soon finding warm friends among these children of the 

forest. As in Virginia, the Sachem had a susceptible daughter, 

and this dusky Pocahontas of the Penobscot, captivated by the 

courtly graces of the young and handsome Baron, fell in love 

with him : 

For man is fire, and woman is tow, 

And the Somebody comes and begins to blow. 
The usual result followed, so that it was not long before — 

Lo! the young Baron of St. Castine, 

Swift as the wind is, and as wild, 
Has married the dusky Tarratine, 

Has married Madockawando's child! 

This marriage made him a member of the tribe, and he soon 
advanced to leadership. 

The restless and warlike Indians ahnost worshipped the chival- 
rous young Frenchman, who was their apostle, and became their 
chieftain and led them in repeated raids against their English and 
Indian foes. But he ultimately tired of this roving life and returned 
to "his Chateau in the Pyrenees," taking his Indian bride along. 
Then marvelled much his French tenantry : 

Down in the village day by day 

The people gossip in their way. 

And stare to see the Baroness pass 

On Sunday morning to early Mass ; 

And when she kneeleth down to pray. 

They wonder, and whisper together, and say 

"Surely this is no heathen lass!" 



AN 



ISLESBORO SKETCH. 



23 




'"Ms-VJ 









And in course of time they learn to bless 

The ]!aron and the Baroness. 

And in the course of time the Curate learns 

A secret so dreadful that by turns 

He is ice and fire, he freezes and burns. 

The Baron at confession hath said, 

That though this woman be his wife, 
He hath wed her as the Indians wed — 

He hath bought her for a gun and a knife ! 

This caused m.,ch trouble, but the Curate finally managed to 
make all things right through tl,e efficacy of a Christian weddmg. 

The choir is singing the matin song, 

The doors of the church are opened wide ; 

The people crowd, and press, and throng. 
To see the bridegroom and the bride. 

They enter and pass along the nave ; 

They stand upon the father's grave ; 



24 AN ISLESBORO SKETCH. 

The bells are ringing soft and slow ; 

The living above and the dead below 

Give their blessing on one and twain ; 

The warm wind blows from the hills of Spain, 

The birds are building, the leaves are green, 

And Baron Castine of St. Castine, 

Hath come at last to his own again. 



The son of this Baron by his Tarratine princess, became the 
chief of the tribe and ruled it until, in 1721, he was captured in 
an English raid and taken prisoner to Boston. He is described 
as brave and magnanimous, and when brought before the Puritan 
Council at Boston for trial, he wore his French uniform, and was 
accused of attending an Abenac^ui Council fire. He replied with 
spirit : '• I am an Abenaquis by my mother ; all my life has been 
passed among the nation that has made me chief and commander 
over it. I could not be absent from a council where the interests 
of my brethren were to be discussed. The dress I now wear is 
one becoming my rank and birth as an officer of the Most 
Christian King of France, my master." 

He was held several months as a prisoner, but was ultimately 
released. Finally he, too, returned to the ancestral chateau in the 
Pyrenees. His lineal descendants are said to yet rule the Abenaqui 
nation, but it has dwindled almost to nothingness. Honoring these 
memories Fort Pentagoet became Castine. In and around its 
harbor and along the shores of Islesboro, in the many wars this 
region has seen, there have been fought no less than five important 
naval battles, and relics of these bitter conflicts are yet found. 



AN ISLESBORO SKETCH. 



25 



All the Abenaqui tribes were firm allies of the Americans during 
the Revolution. For their fealty they were given an extensive 
reservation where their remnants now live, on Indian Island in the 
Penobscot at Oldtown above Bangor. Catching fish and rafting logs 
are now the occupations of the descendants of the great Indian 
race of Norumbega. 




ISLESBORO INN 




1 



p SLESBORO beauties expand as one 
goes further southward over the 
^ ""*" pleasant island. Below Gilkey's 
llarbor it narrows to a bold ridge several 
miles long and seldom more than a half-mile 
wide. Cut deeply into this ridge is another 
of those bisecting narrows where that picturesque little haven, Dark 
Harbor, is thrust abruptly in among the cliffs of the eastern shore, 
broadening out inside the rocky walls that guard the entrance. It 
is almost hidden from view when out on the bay, and the over- 
hanging trees, combined with the thorough enclosure of this be- 
witching httle basin, produce the delicious shade that has named 
it the Dark Harbor. 

The head waters of this pleasant bay are dammed, forming a 
basin of about a dozen acres. This beautiful lake is enclosed by 



AN ISLESBORO SKETCH. 



27 



sloping shores, wooded sometimes to the water's edge, and having 
interspersed diminutive beaches, or small projecting rocks. Over it 
is thrown a foot bridge, beyond which winding steps x\\)on the 
southern bank ascend the cHff to a lovely grove of spruce trees, 
the ground beneath them carpeted with gray moss, while moss also 
covers many of the tree-trunks. This charming spot is Dark 
Harbor Head, and a short walk upon a woodland path brings you 
out of the grove to still higher open land, upon the elevated part 
of which is built the rustic and comfortable Islesboro Inn. 

There cannot be found upon the rocky and romantic coast of 
Maine a more attractive location. From its western front there are 
a series of splendid glimpses over Clilkey's Harbor and the western 
bay and islands to the bold background of the Camden mountains. 
From the eastern front is seen the grand sweep of East Penobscot 
bay, its broad surface bearing distant and scattered islands, with 
the hilly wooded shores of Cape Rosier across the water, and to the 
south again in the far distance rise the bisected round-topped peaks 
of Mount Desert, thirty miles away. To the southward are the 
group of Fox Islands with North Haven and Vinal Haven, while off 
through a bewitching vista among them looms up the Isle au Haut, 
their outer guardian upon the ocean's edge. The bold and graceful 
outline of Southern Islesboro bounds the view in that direction. 

Such is the gorgeous scene from the Islesboro Inn, over the 
East Penobscot bay as scores of delicate white-winged yachts, standing 
over before the strength of a fresh northwestern breeze, are threading 
the mazy thoroughfares among these pleasant islands and dancing 
upon the sjjarkling waves on their various courses through the bay 




ALONG THE EAST SHORE. 
South Islesboro. 



AN ISLESBORO SKETCH. 29 

or to Mount Desert and the further eastern havens. StrolHng further 
along the Islesboro grounds one enters more beautiful woodland 
groves. The smooth gray-trunked beeches have openings among 
their groups showing glimpses of the water. There are spreading 
maples and white birches ; and across the grassy openings the dark 
spruces form a sharp contrast with the gnarled and fantastic trunks 
of the arbor vitas, while the tall ash and yellow birch stand apart 
in native dignity. y\nd everywhere it seems as if this charming 
island were planted with groups of gorgeous Christmas trees — 
millions of them, growing stately and symmetrical, and beautiful 
beyond description in their native and vigourous glory upon these 
rocky hills. Lowly, yet lovely, there also grow in many shaded 
nooks, acres of ferns of attractive forms and most delicate texture. 

The visitor may admire the beautiful in nature, but an essential 
element to its thorough enjoyment is to have at the same time 
complete personal comfort. The graceful and elegant Islesboro Inn 
seems to have grown naturally into the charms of its environment. 
It is simple and homelike both outside and inside and impresses 
one as being constructed more like a handsome and comfortable 
private rural residence than a hostelrie. Standing upon a beautiful 
promontory with most attractive surroundings, the architecture to be 
in thorough keeping is unique, and the opposite of the four-story 
barn-like rectangular caravansary usually seen at a fashionable 
summer resort. The structure is low and somewhat long, with a 
tasteful roof outline that is broken into several large gambrels, 
with stucco faces, wooden cross beams and latticed windows. 

This building is constructed after a familiar type of English 



1-^ 




AN ISLESBORO SKETCH. -,( 

country-house, and is broadened at the base by spreading verandahs 
within heavy stone arches. The internal finish and arrangements 
are handsome but simple, without the slightest indication pf drear- 
iness. There are no waste places in the form of large rooms, 
and the parlors, halls and smoking room, both in size and furnishing, 
give a solid impression of comfort. The cuisine and service are 
closely in character with the building. Nominally an Inn, the place 
is in character more a private club, having accommodation for 
perhaps forty or fifty people. 

The dining hall, the one large apartment in the Inn, is admir- 
ably situated, its broad, plate-glass windows having, on either side, 
charming views over the East and West Penobscot bays. On the 
one hand the broad water glints in the sunlight as the visitor pauses 
at his breakfast to look far away at the distant blue outlines of 
Mount Desert and the Blue Hill. On the other side, seen through 
trees in lovely natural groupings, and across green slopes, are glimpses 
of the sheltered waters of Gilkey's Harbor, nestling within its en- 
closure of islands, the distant bay and mountains guarding the 
western horizon. Under the broad stone piazza arches, as one 
looks out, are thus framed a series of lovely pictures. 

The natural surroundings of the Inn are charming. The fasci- 
nating little basin of Dark Harbor, deep down among the tree- 
covered clififs, is but a short distance away. Running up into the 
land nearly a half-mile, this oval lake almost cuts the island in 
twain, only a narrow neck of land dividing it from Gilkey's Harbor 
on the other side. There are floating wharves with pleasant sail 
and rowboats ready to start in any direction over the waters of the 



32 



AN ISLESBORO SKETCH. 




GULL POINT. 
East Shore from the Lslesboro Inn. Looking South. 

bay. The enclosed basin inside the dam is flooded at high tide, 
and, warmed by the sun, gives opportunity for salt water bathing. 
In several places on the rocky shores near the Inn, limpid springs 
of the clearest water bubble out of the cliffs. It was in the very 
centre of the now enclosed Dark Harbor basin, where she had taken 
refuge, that the first iron steam propeller ever constructed — the 
Bangor — was burnt in August, 1845. 

The peninsula making the southern extremity of lslesboro is a 
pleasant ridge of highlands about two miles long, elevated in the 
centre and sloping either way to the water. It abounds in attractive 
woodland rambles remarkable for their sylvan beauties. A short 
distance from the Inn on the western verge of this peninsula another 
boating station is located for the convenience of aquatic exploration 
about the smooth waters and varied coasts enclosing Gilkey's Harbor. 










z^-, r 




^"^mm'^ 



34 AN ISLESBORO SKETCH. 

Here is a grand inland and protected expanse of water for rowing 
or sailing, as safe from wind and wave as the smoothest lake. 

Islesboro Inn is in close communication with a dozen of the 
most interesting localities on Penobscot bay. A few miles away, on 
the western coast, is Camden, with its picturesque harbor, its lakes 
and mountains. Belfast, upon its deep bay, is to the northward, 
with Bucksport and Bangor beyond. Over on the southeastern side 
of Islesboro, and a half-dozen miles off, is the numerous archipelago 
of the Fox Islands, the many rocky and wooded islets being divided 
by intricate passages disclosing varied and sometimes grotesque 
shapes among the bordering cliffs. Castine is to the northeast ; and 
nearer to the eastward over the bay are the rocky shores and rolling 
wooded hills of Cape Rosier. Breaking into the northern shore 
of the Fox Island group is the picturesque little haven known as 
Puli)it Harbor. 

The native people of this primitive island live in neat houses 
with broad fronts that are usually painted white, and the men being 
chiefly sea captains, their cottage front doors naturally open upon 
steep stairways, rising almost straight up to the higher floors, like a 
ship's companion ladder. They are living to-day just as their an- 
cestors have done for generations, knowing little and caring less in 
their secluded elysium of what is passing outside. Upon the pebbly 
beaches, shells and sea-urchins are found, while fish-hawks and gulls 
circle about and scream above our heads. Scattered over this 
pleasant region are the little white-tombed graveyards where rest 
the forefathers of the island. It is one of the fairest scenes in 
nature, only just discovered by the fashionable world, and is destined 



«- 



-'->^ 









-H^ V^ ^\ 




t^sa:- 



36 



AN ISLESBORO SKETCH. 



to be among the most famous resorts of the American coast. Such 
is the gem of Penobscot bay, the "insular town of Islesboro." 

Wert thou all that I wish thee, great, glorious and free, 
First flower of the earth and first gem of the sea. 

Tom Moore. 




"AN ISLAND INLET." 
Head of Spragues Cove, North Isi.esboro. 






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